Why recycle?

Recycling helps protect the environment. Recycling conserves resources, prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect raw material to make new products and lessens the need to build landfills.

Recycling plays a significant role in the state’s economy. South Carolina is home to about 500 recycling businesses that provide more than 22,000 jobs.

Recycling saves energy. Manufacturing products from recycled material uses far less energy than making the same product from raw material. This makes us less energy dependent.

South Carolina still sends nearly 75 percent of its waste to landfills. Much of that material could have been recycled. That reflects lost opportunities to lower disposal costs, earn revenue from the sale of recyclables, conserve resources, create jobs and sustain recycling businesses.